Things That Go Bump in the Night
by AgoodWITCH
Summary: Edward has always been haunted by his past, but as the Twilight Paranormal Group goes to investigate a summer camp that has been tormented by a spirit; the events push Edward closer to new team member, Bella. Can they find a way to heal each other?
1. Chapter 1

**Edward has always been haunted by his past, but as the Twilight Paranormal Group goes to investigate a summer camp that has been tormented by a spirit; the events push Edward closer to new team member, Bella. Can they find a way to heal each other? This story is rated for language and lemons. No infringement is intended.**

Mid WC one night, I got an idea while Paranormal State was playing in the background … this is the result. Hope you enjoy it. Love as always to Mizzdee for her love and dedicated beta work. This was part of the Fandom 4 Ovarian Cancer fundraiser, but I'm now free to post, so I'm sharing it with you. Thank you to everyone who supported this charity!

**EPOV**

We all have ghosts in our pasts, but for me it is a little more literal. My parents' dream home in the suburbs of Chicago was a nightmare for me as the spirits that remained there tormented me. My parents never understood my outbursts and didn't believe me when I told them the house was haunted. My teen years were rocky, but when I arrived at college, I found my calling.

It was in a philosophy class during my sophomore year that I met Emmett McCarty, Jasper Hale, and his twin sister, Rosalie. Whenever we would start group discussions, the four of us would take over the class matter what the topic was, and by the end of the class our teacher was glad to be rid of us all.

It took a while to open up to them, but after meeting Jasper's girlfriend, Alice, who is a medium and has some pretty freaky moments with precognition, I told them about my past.

All of us were interested in the supernatural and we began researching different paranormal investigators who were in the area to see if we could learn something. That was when Alice told us out of the blue that we all had to go to some poetry reading. We didn't know it at the time, but that night led to the forming of the Twilight Paranormal Group.

Esme Platt was the poet that Alice dragged us to see, a beautiful woman whose poetry was as haunted as she was and who worked with her fiancé, Carlisle Cullen, investigating the supernatural. A late night chat with the couple led to a summer of working together on some cases, which brings us to where we are now, four years after the fact.

TPG really took off the summer after we all graduated and after a feature on a TV special that showcased paranormal investigators, we had plenty of calls coming in. So now we travel all around the country, trying to help people deal with their paranormal activity.

For a while it had been the seven of us, but in the spring Carlisle got a call from his niece, so as we started our fifth summer on the road, Bella Swan joined the team.

She fit in well with everyone, which was a relief, and she had good instincts when it came to investigating, but I had a feeling that this next case would change everything.

Driving down the long road that lead to the secluded camp, we all began to psych ourselves up for our biggest investigation yet.

The camp had closed last year after having a large number of issues with the teenage campers being frightened by the ghosts that were said to haunt the camp. Four other paranormal teams had come to the camp and failed to help matters, so we were called in as the directors' last hope.

Just as we made our way under the welcome sign for the camp, I noticed the single light on in the office, giving us an idea of where to find out clients. As soon as our matching black Volvo SUV's pulled up in front of the building, the woman in her early thirties was at the door, ushering us inside.

"Hi, my name is Jessica Stanley, and this is my fiancé, Mike Newton. Thank you so much for coming here; you really are our last hope."

I walked over to Mike and shook his hand as I began the introductions. "We're happy to try and help you in any way we can. My name is Edward Masen, and I believe you know Esme from your phone conversations. Let me introduce you to Carlisle, our religious expert, Rosalie and Jasper, our techs, and Emmett and Bella, our other two investigators. Alice Brandon, our medium and occult specialist, will arrive tomorrow so that she can arrive with a clean slate. Now, can you please begin by telling us when the phenomena began?"

Jessica smiled as she gestured for us to sit down. "This camp has changed hands a few times in the last forty years, but we first came here as campers the summer before starting seventh grade. We all heard the stories, but we didn't believe it at first. All camps have ghost stories."

"But things started to get worse when we became counselors," Mike added. "We've been coming here for twenty years. Living two hundred miles apart, we only had ten weeks together a year so when the former directors told us two years ago that they wanted to retire, we jumped at it. They were firm believers in the spirits, but when we took over that was when we saw the full extent of it.

"The further from the main entrance you go into the woods, the worse the activity is. Cabins seven and eleven are the worst of the sleeping facilities. Cabin eleven was destroyed last October after a fire that the inspectors couldn't explain. The activity is the worst by the lake and the amphitheater. Campers have seen lights in the woods when our generators run the only power out here, they've reported seeing figures, heard loud noises and voices. I know it sounds like what most people see when they contact you, but we've been here for the last two years living here all year around and there's been too much not to believe it is something otherworldly."

Jessica sat forward as she continued from where Mike left off. "This is the place we fell in love, we've sank our savings into this place and we want it to be the place it used to be for us. We didn't book campers for the first session, so we're hoping that this can be made better by the time our campers arrive."

"Okay," Emmett said, "I think it's best if we start with the tour because we have so much area to cover."

"Excellent idea," Carlisle adds and we walked out of the office with a handful of maps that were made for the incoming campers.

The tour took us two hours, with little stories being told of specific incidents at each stop. When we got to cabin seven, which was closest to the lake, the change was immediate. Jessica and Mike closed in to one another as they showed us the lake, never going close to it before they walked us to what remained of cabin eleven. Jessica told us about the night that they were sleeping in the cottage behind the directors' office and they heard the fire alarm go off. They grabbed the phone as they ran to try and save the cabin but it was already engulfed in flames. Parts of the building were destroyed, but it remained structurally sound so the couple waited for the investigation from the fire marshal to come back with his findings, when they found no reason, intentional or accidental, for the fire, Jessica insisted they not rebuild it until they got to the bottom of whatever was going on.

The amphitheater was another eerie place, but there was also a natural echo caused by the shape. As we worked our way back, Jasper and Rosalie were already taking notes on where they wanted to set up our various pieces of equipment, hoping to maximize our efforts. When we arrived back at the cottage, we explained what we would be doing tonight before sending Jessica and Mike off to their hotel for the night.

"What we will do tonight during dead time is set up in some of the more active places and see what we can uncover. We will be researching tomorrow, as well as asking Alice to do her walkabout, so we want to get our first pass done before that happens. We'll be in contact with you tomorrow to talk some more, so if you can try to think about other things you've heard that would be helpful. Also, we're going to need a list of the previous owners and contact information, if you have it."

"Sure, we'll get that information for you tonight," Mike agreed. "But what do you mean by 'dead time?'"

"The hours of midnight to three am are said to be the witching hour, with three am being considered the most evil by Christians because it is the opposite of three pm, the time it is said that Christ was crucified. Paranormal activity is uncommonly high at night, so we investigate at those hours." Carlisle finished his little speech as Jessica and Mike said their good nights.

With the clients gone, we started setting up for our first dead time. Knowing we would be out here for a few nights at least, we decided to split up for our first session and see where we got the most activity. Jasper and Rosalie were both going to be working tech in the directors' office, while the rest of us picked our locations. Emmett would be going out into the woods, I chose cabin seven, Esme took the burnt out cabin eleven, Carlisle selected the amphitheater while Bella opted to spend the night at the lake.

After eating dinner, we set up the motion detectors, microphones and cameras around the areas we weren't covering including the remaining cabins and buildings and parts of the woods. We were hoping to pick up some paranormal activity other than those of the normal woodland creatures, finally getting ourselves equipped so that we could begin dead time. Just as we were about to start, I decided to give the usual talk before we got under way.

"Okay everyone, they've had a lot of different kinds of activity, but we don't know what was exaggerated or what may have gone unreported by campers. Keep your eyes open and let's see what we can catch. Jasper, let us know when you're ready in tech."

It was a minute before I heard the slight crackle. "It's two eighteen am, we're officially commencing dead time."

Sitting alone on one of the tiny beds, I start with my attempt at communication. "To whatever spirit may be in this room, give me a sign of your presence."

When no sounds came, I tried again. "Knock something, bang something, let me know that you're here."

Little taps started, so I continued to talk, hoping to draw out a reaction. There were little hints but nothing too big. I noticed that it had already been nearly a half hour when I heard Rosalie's voice over our coms. "Bella, what are you getting out there? Your signal is going in and out."

Another minute passed before I heard the loud splash and then Jasper's voice yelling, "Edward, get to the lake now!"

I jumped off the bed and ran out the door, crossing the short distance to the lake only to see a canoe overturned in the center of the lake just as the splashing resumed and Bella surfaced for a second before going back under. Dropping my camera, I ran across the dock before I dove in. I swam to where Bella was and pulled her above the surface again.

Swimming with her to the dock, I pulled her up onto the planks and jumped up beside her. "Bella? Bella, can you hear me?"

I checked her for some kind of response before beginning rescue breathing. It took a few passes of my lips on hers before she gasped and gagged, coughing up a small amount of water. When I looked up, the rest of our team surrounded us, with Carlisle pushing his way forward.

"Bella, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Carlisle," Bella told him.

"I think we should call it a night. Let's go collect the equipment and then get some rest before we start with the local research," Esme offered, taking Carlisle's hand.

Everyone nodded, while Bella turned to face me. "Can we go? I'll be fine to come back tomorrow, but for right now I need to get some distance."

"Sure, we'll get our things together and go," I said.

"Why don't you two go ahead, we'll meet up with you tomorrow morning," Esme encouraged.

Looking at the rest of our team, Jasper handed me the keys to my Volvo and I led a shivering Bella to the car so we could go back to the hotel. We were paired up, the couples all taking a room each, with Bella and I getting a room together. We were both fine with sharing, and for two people who had only known each other for a short period of time, we got along great in close quarters. I had a feeling with what happened earlier, tonight would be different.

Bella was quiet the entire ride back, only whispering a thank you when I turned on the heat and seat warmer. We got to the hotel and Bella opened her suitcase, instantly cursing as she rifled through the bag. "Shit! No … dammit."

"Bella, what's wrong?"

"This is Rosalie's suitcase. They're not going to be here for at least another hour and a half or two hours and all I want to do is shower and go to bed." Bella pouted a little as I moved to my suitcase.

"I think this is the only thing I have that will fit you," I offered, handing her a t-shirt and a pair of boxers.

She looked up and blushed. "Thanks, I'll be out in a few."

Using the time she was in the shower to change and climb into bed, I said good night to Bella as she walked through the darkened room to go to sleep. In the last moments before sleep took me, my mind was determined to focus on the tingle that passed between my lips and Bella's while I gave her mouth to mouth. I'd never used that training before, but now I was glad that I had taken that class.

I wasn't sure how long I'd been asleep, but when I got up to take a piss, I nearly jumped out of my skin when Bella's silhouette on the chair by the window caught my eye. "Jesus, Bella. You scared the hell out of me. What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes I was back in the water."

Moving to sit on her bed, I asked the question that had been bugging me since she opened her eyes on the dock. "Bella, if you can't swim well, why did you go out on the boat?"

"That's just it, Edward. I can swim. I was a lifeguard for five summers. My body wouldn't move how I wanted it to, all I could do was struggle against what I felt pulling me down."

That surprised me because I was able to pull her away without feeling her caught on anything. "Something was pulling you?"

She nodded. "I was on the dock asking what it was about the lake that scared people and I felt like I should go out on the water and see if the feeling was more intense there. I don't remember losing my oar and then I was in the water and I couldn't scream, or swim, or anything."

"I'm just glad I got to you quickly," I said. Bella looked so tired, I offered something I thought might help. "Why don't we lay down and we can talk until you fall asleep?"

"I'm not sure it will make much of a difference," she whined a little.

"What if we were lying together?" I saw her eyebrow rise, so I clarified, "I'm just talking about sharing the bed for comfort."

"I'll try anything at this point." Bella yawned and we moved into my bed together.

Now I went to sleep with the memory of her lips and the feel of her body next to me. We both seemed to drift off, but right around dawn Bella started to have a nightmare, so I shook her lightly and was able to calm her down.

When we finally woke up around eleven, Bella's ass pressed firmly against my very persistent problem. Moving my lower half away from her body, I looked down and groaned. It had been a long time since I'd seen a woman wearing my clothes and Bella looked damn good doing it. Getting up, I took one last look back at the bed before grabbing a change of clothes and heading in to take a shower.

The hot water felt good against my back and it calmed my nerves as I rinsed off and got dressed for the day.

Bella was already dressed and sitting on the bed when I came out, her laptop booted up and searching the local public records for information on the camp and its land. I turned on my phone and called Jasper, who was on his way back from the airport with Alice, so I arranged to meet him and take Alice over to the camp for the psychic walkthrough. Giving Carlisle the same heads up, I sat down beside Bella and let her know what was going on.

"Jasper's almost here, so I'm going to head back to the camp with Alice while Esme will come and bring you down to their room so you can continue doing the research."

"Edward, I'm not a child. I can work alone without falling apart." Bella seemed offended, and I wanted to apologize.

"I don't think you're a child, but you were involved in a very traumatic paranormal occurrence last night and I don't want you to be alone in case there are some residual effects. You're nightmares last night were -"

"Not about last night. It just brought up some bad memories." Her face fell and I wanted to do something to fix that too. "Well, you have to get going, so let's get me packed up and on my way to Carlisle's room."

"Bella." I took her hand, begging her to give me something.

"Did Carlisle ever tell you how we got so close?"

"No," I told her honestly.

"My mom is ten years older than Carlisle. She got knocked up in her first semester at college and wouldn't tell anyone who my dad was. So she dropped out of college and started working at whatever place would hire her as she moved across the country with whatever guy she was dating at the time. I was five when she married my step-dad, and even as young as I was, I didn't like him. One day we were out on someone's boat and he was annoyed that I was clinging to my mom so he told me to go swimming. But I didn't know how to. He picked me up and threw me in the water and I thrashed and screamed and swallowed a bunch of water."

Bella shivered as she continued to tell me the story. "My mom was freaked out that he had done that so she packed us up and divorced him. But all she did was drop me off with my grandpa and Carlisle. Carlisle's mom left when he was a baby too, so he knew how I felt. We were only eight years apart, so we were more like brother and sister than uncle and niece back then. It wasn't until my junior year in high school that my birth dad found me. He had been looking for me for a long time, but didn't have much luck. Until he became the chief of police in a small town and was able to use a few of his contacts to find me. I moved there halfway through the year and then went to school locally to get my associate degree in library sciences. I'd just gotten my degree when I called Carlisle and asked about joining you for the summer to help with research and see what it was like. That was how I got here. I actually became a lifeguard because of what happened when I was little; I didn't want anyone to ever feel that scared of the water."

"Which is why you freaked out when you couldn't swim last night?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm just glad that you were there," she whispered.

"I'm always going to be there for you, Bella." My eyes travelled to her lips just as the door shook with someone's pounding.

"Come on, Edward," Jasper yelled. "Alice is waiting in the car."

"I better go," I told her. "See you in a few hours."

"Be careful, Edward," she warned.

"Always am," I responded.

Opening the door, I walked past Jasper and down to where he'd parked the car. Alice was quiet for the first part of the drive, but after about twenty minutes she turned to me.

"You guys are cute together," was all she said, but I knew she was holding back.

"Alice, please don't go there. You know that I don't date and I'm not about to just screw around with her. She deserves better."

"Better than you?" Alice asked. "That is how that sentence ends, right? Bella's this sweet, innocent, pure girl and I'm going to ruin her life with my baggage and my bullshit. Well I don't know if you've noticed, but that doe eyed young woman that you're holding at arm's length has her own set of mismatched suitcases to sit right next to yours. You can't put her on a pedestal if you aren't willing to be there to catch her when she comes tumbling off it. Carlisle's mother fucked up Renee, and Renee fucked up Bella. If it wasn't for Carlisle and her grandfather she wouldn't know love at all, and she's trying desperately to forge roots that she can't cut easily if things get tough, don't make it harder by making her feel that you wouldn't miss her if she gone."

"Of course I'd miss her," I told Alice. "How do I get rid of this feeling that I'm better off alone?"

"Let her in. Let Bella show you that together you can become whole, because there's no need for you to both be broken apart." Her hand found mine on the gearshift for a moment as I made the turn that would lead us to the camp. The remainder of the drive was quiet as Alice started to open herself up to what was happening around us. I parked the car right in front of the director's building and watched as she looked out towards the buildings scattered across the landscape.

"There's something malicious here. She hits me right away, but it's odd … she's saying 'hi' and telling me to 'get out' at the same time." Alice's eyes were slightly glazed over as I took her arm and let her lead me around.

There was an eeriness to Alice's ability and how accurate she could be, so I was hoping she would be able to shed some light on what caused the things that happened last night. We continued past the different activity buildings and towards the cabins when she started walking toward the amphitheater.

Alice froze somewhere off to the right and met my eyes. "They made a fool out of her here … this is the place where it all began."

We continued around and she kept looking off into the woods, like something was going to come after her. "What is it, Alice?"

"There are eyes out there, they see everything and they laugh." Abruptly, Alice turned to the cabins and ran into cabin number seven; walking over to the bed I had sat on the night before. "This was her bed. Even in her sleep they tormented her. And the cabin over there, on the other side of the lake … something happened there, something you're not going to want to hear."

"That's why it burned?" I asked.

"She couldn't stand the reminder." Alice was silent for a minute before she looked to the lake itself. "Why didn't you tell me Bella almost died in that lake too?"

"We never…" I started before I caught her meaning, "What do you mean, too?"

"This young girl, the night she was attacked … she was crossing the lake and drowned. That's why she's here. She can't crossover."

"Are you getting anything else?" I knew if she had a name, she would say it, but she shook her head.

"Not even an initial. But she's where this haunting started. Within days she brought on her anger, there was no one who could reprimand her, so she took it out on those who let her suffer. This is bad, Edward. And if we're going to make this place livable as a camp again, we have a lot to discover."

"How come you didn't ask about Bella's accident?" I knew she knew about it, but I wanted to know why she hadn't questioned me.

"I called Jasper when I saw it happening. How did you think he told you to get out there so quickly?" I stared at her, shocked as she called out, "And believe me, Edward, that feeling will be even better when you kiss her for real."

Running to the car, we buckled up and powered on our cellphones, which both started ringing. Looking to see Bella's name on my screen, I smiled as I answered her call. "Yes, Bella?"

"Edward, this is bad. Like Carrie at the prom, bad."

"I know, Alice has a lot of information for us to look into." I waited a minute before whispering, "Can we talk later? I really think we need a little time away from the group."

"Okay? Is it about the case?" She was speaking a little softer, so I assumed she didn't want to draw attention to herself.

"Not exactly, we'll talk at dinner tonight. See you in a while." I hung up and looked at Alice. "What was that comment about a kiss?"

"You felt it when you saved her. That connection that has been bothering you ever since. It's the reason you're questioning a relationship you wouldn't be considering otherwise. Trust it, trust her and you'll be okay." Alice was looking around again as we turned onto the main road. The rest of the ride was quiet and when we got back to the hotel, we met up with the rest of the team and they had a lot of information to share with us.

"Let's start with the analysis of the events from last night," Rosalie began. "Carlisle felt as if there were eyes on him everywhere, but the footage he shot didn't reveal much, it was all subjective on his part. Esme got some banging in cabin eleven as well as tugging at her clothes and hair. Emmett heard a lot of noises, some we're still trying to distinguish, and then there's what happened at the lake."

Bella pulled her knees up and looked around at us. "I felt compelled to go to the lake. I knew I was doing it, but it wasn't a decision to do it. I was maybe a third of the way across when the boat turned over. It wasn't like I hit something or I lost my balance … it was as if someone was holding the boat and pushed it, turning it over."

"That was when Alice called Jasper and I was out in the lake," I added. "You were luckily in the narrower part of the lake."

"Hy was closer to the middle, she had been crossing from cabin eleven -" Bella was talking about her research now when Alice interrupted her.

"What did you say?"

"Hy had been rowing across the river from cabin eleven. One of the boys confessed to what happened that night when the investigation got bigger."

"What is it you're calling her?" Alice implored.

"Hy. Her first name was Hyacinth, but her nickname was Hy."

"That's what she meant," I told Alice. "She wasn't dicking with you; she was telling you her name."

"What did the historical research show? Because I picked up on some pretty sinister things out there." Alice was leaning forward as Bella started telling the story.

"It started early in the summer of 1974, there was a talent night at the beginning of the second week of camp and they dumped freezing cold lake water on her, it soaked through her white camp shirt and gave the audience an extra show. Then after that, the boys started teasing her and laughing at her, the girls picked on her something horrible. One night, when the camp was almost empty, except for the campers and staff who were staying for the entire summer, James Trace told her to meet him by the dock on his side of the lake. She took a boat and crossed the lake, following him to his cabin where three of his friends waited." Bella stopped for a minute and I reached over to squeeze her hand as she continued.

"They held her down and raped her in the cabin and then finally let her up, which was when she ran back to the lake. Pushing the boat off the shore, she put a small hole in it going over the rocks and almost halfway through it started to sink. She tried to swim, but was physically spent and downed in the lake. The female counselor did a head count the next morning and realized Hy was missing so she went looking, and that's when the body was found. The boys were questioned and finally one of the friends cracked, ratting out James and the rest. The camp was closed for a few years and then was sold to a couple from out of state. They owned it until the mid-eighties and then sold it, which is when the previous owners bought it. We spoke to the former owners and they didn't know what happened at the camp, and Jessica and Mike had no clue. It's tragic, really."

Alice winked at me before she turned to Jasper. "Okay, well you said you still have footage and audio to go over, right?"

"Yeah, Rosalie, Carlisle, and I were going to order in and go over it?" Jasper admitted and she smiled more brightly.

"That's perfect. Edward, do you want to take care of what we were talking about earlier?"

I rolled my eyes at how far she was pushing this, like she was convinced I wouldn't do it on my own. "Sure, Bella and I will take care of it. We'll regroup tomorrow to talk about our second dead time."

"Sounds good, we'll see you too tomorrow." Carlisle smiled as Bella and I head out into the hall.

"So, what are we doing tonight? Was there something that happened out there that you wanted to look into?" Bella's eyes were so eager that I had to smile.

"Nothing particular, it was just Alice and I talking about what happened to you and how you revealed some things to me. You and I know each other the least out of the eight of us and I'd like to change that so I thought we could go to dinner and just get to know each other better. Is that okay?"

"I'd like that," she whispered. "Let me just go and change and I'll be ready to go."

Nodding, I opened the door to our room and let Bella gather her things. Changing into a button down shirt and some nice jeans, I waited for about twenty-five minutes, playing with my phone before Bella walked out.

"Damn," I whispered as she walked out in a blouse and skirt. She didn't dress up a lot, mainly because we spent a lot of time walking around people's houses and backyards, squeezing into crawl spaces and the like. Which was a shame, because she was gorgeous.

"What, is there something wrong? If this is too dressy I can change into jean -" Bella started, but I stopped her.

"You're beautiful. That was a good 'damn,' not a bad one," I assured her.

"Okay, where are we going?"

"There's a little steakhouse down the road, is that cool?" Suddenly I was freaking out that she might be a vegetarian, or at least not a big red meat person. Have I seen her eat a hamburger?

"Perfect, I could use something hearty," Bella said with a laugh. I guess she's not a 'just a salad for me' type of girl.

"All right, let's get going."

We walked out of the hotel and over to the Volvo, Bella thankfully allowed me to open the door for her before I jogged around to get in myself. "Is the case off limits tonight? Or can we talk about it and whatever the mystery elephant in the room is?"

I chuckled nervously before answering, "No, we can talk about the case."

Bella shifted for a minute and then looked my way. "Is it always like that? Because that was pretty scary."

"No, it isn't. Last night was a pretty rare thing. We get some form of contact, but we rarely have someone affected like you were. Normally Alice will tap into the energy, but that wasn't something we see often."

Nodding again, Bella let the rest of the short ride pass in silence. I walked into the restaurant with my hand on the small of her back, but it didn't stop the hostess from flirting.

"Party of two, and a table with a little privacy if you can," I said a little harshly as we waited for our name to be called.

It wasn't too long of a wait, but the waitress they gave us was going to be a problem.

"Welcome to Texas Steakhouse and Saloon, can I get you a drink to start?" Lauren, our waitress said to me alone.

"I'll have a margarita," Bella said loudly, her glare fixed on the blonde who was currently eye-fucking me.

"And I'll have a Corona. Can you also bring us an order of queso while we decide on our meals?"

Shaking her head, Lauren responded politely and scampered off.

"Well that didn't take long?" Bella muttered, catching my attention as I looked at the menu.

"What? You can't honestly think that I find that attractive?"

"She's pretty, Edward, you can admit it."

"She's passable, but she also isn't the person I came here with. I don't care who's standing over us when you're sitting in the chair across from me," I told her blatantly as Lauren returned with our drinks.

A few minutes later, Bella and I ordered our steaks and then I decided to move into the heavier stuff now that my liquid courage had kicked in.

"Bella, earlier you told me about your past, and I'd like to return the favor."

Shaking her head, she reached out to cover my hand. "You don't have to Edward. I just wanted you to understand why last night was so significant."

"I know I don't have to," I admitted, "but I want you to know. We've been working together for a little while and I haven't told you how this all got started." I turned my hand over so that I was holding her hand as I continued.

"I grew up in an old house in Chicago, and though my parents refused to admit it, the place was haunted. I was tormented in that place and no one believed me. After I met the gang in college, we decided we wanted to start investigating, and Alice led us to Carlisle and Esme. But the things I experienced in that house … it's with me every day. I spend my time looking for trouble out in these clients' homes and I can't imagine bringing that home to someone. The others work with their significant others so they see it too, but I'd hate to see someone I loved tortured by something that latched onto me, or see me struggle with my own demons."

"Have you ever thought of doing an investigation of your childhood home?" Bella asked, but I shook my head.

"My parents died a little over a year ago, and I haven't been back except to take care of some business. I don't feel comfortable there," I explained.

"Well, Esme said we have two clients lined up and then a little break," Bella told me as she played with the nacho cheese, "what if we went to Chicago and did a proper investigation on your house. Maybe if we were able to justify what you experienced it would help. Think about how it will feel for Jessica and Mike to know that Hy was reaching out in the only way she knows how. We could give you that, Edward."

"But we would be doing it without getting paid, unless I spent some of my inheritance to pay you guys."

"Edward," Bella sighed, "do you honestly think we'd take your money even if you were determined to give it to us? We're all each other have, really, so we look out for our own."

"I guess we could try," I conceded, and Bella pulled out her phone. "We'll tell them later, I'm sure we can let it wait until after we finish the camp."

Our dinner arrived and our drinks were replenished, but it seemed the fierce grip I had on Bella's hand was enough to deter Lauren from making another spectacle of herself.

I could tell the second margarita had killed a few of Bella's inhabitations, so it seemed it was up to me to keep things moving slow.

Bella ordered the brownie for dessert, asking for two spoons and some milk and from the moment it hit the table, I was in trouble.

Food seemed to be Bella's best weapon when she flirted, because her mouth did some downright sinful things as she ate that brownie. I had a few bites myself, but when I felt Bella's thumb brush the corner of my mouth to wipe some chocolate off of my face, I lost control a little.

Her thumb slipped into my mouth, and she moaned softly as I licked it clean, my hand already in the air to ask for the check. Bella ran to the bathroom while I settled the bill and soon we were back in the car on the way to our hotel room.

Our trip to the room was thankfully brief, but as Bella practically jumped me when the door closed behind us, I started to think that we might want to hold off a little.

"Bella, babe, we don't have to do this tonight," I told her. I felt her stiffen in my grasp as she started to pull away, revealing the moisture in her eyes.

"God, I thought you were … that you … shit. I'm going to go kick Carlisle out of bed. He's family, so he'll understand -"

"No, you're not going anywhere," I state firmly. "I wasn't kicking you out or telling you that I don't want you. Because Christ, I want you, but I don't want to rush into this, especially since you've been drinking tonight."

"Edward, I had two drinks, and I've wanted you since Carlisle first introduced us," she shocked me with her honesty.

"Come here, baby," I told her as I started moving toward the bed.

My shirt was pulled over my head quickly, and when it was gone I noticed Bella working on the buttons of her own shirt.

"Stop trying to take off your clothes," I said in a husky voice.

"Why, do you want to do that?" she whispered.

"Hell yes, I do," I answered as I went to work on the offending garment as her hands moved to my belt.

It wasn't long before Bella was standing there in a black bra and a pair of panties, her eyes focused on my boxers.

"Eyes up here, Swan," I teased, just as she reached around to unhook her bra.

"Quit talking, Masen," she countered as I picked her up and deposited her on the bed.

Our lips met and it was like fireworks as her hands trailed down my chest and mine went straight to her breasts. I smiled against her mouth as my attentions garnered a few gasps and moans. Her hips bucked against me and it was all I could do to hold off long enough to make this special.

After a few more minutes of making out and Bella was clawing at my back. "Edward, please … I need you."

A groan escaped my throat as I rolled over and went fishing for my wallet, pulling the lone condom out of the pocket, which reminded me that I needed to stop by the drugstore soon.

I was shocked by Bella's boldness as she sat up and took the condom from my hand, pulling down my boxers and giving me a few good pumps before she slid the latex over my dick.

Happy to return the favor, I pulled on the sides of Bella's underwear and flung it somewhere behind me as I climbed over her on the bed.

"You are so damn beautiful, babe," I whispered as I lowered myself over her, noticing the blush that colored her cheeks.

"So are you, Edward … sexiest man alive." She giggled, which turned into a groan as soon as I pushed into her.

She was so warm and wet and fucking perfect for me. She healed things I never thought could be and as I moved inside her, I was blown away by how intense my feelings for her were. I needed her in my life.

"Oh, Edward … yes!"

Bella's enthusiastic murmurs spurred me on as my pace increased to match her breathing. "Shit, you feel so good, babe. I'm close, Bella."

"Me too, oh, right there."

Repeating the motion that had caused her to call out like that, it wasn't long before she clamped down around me. Her name echoed off the walls as my hips stuttered out a few more erratic thrusts before I collapsed next to Bella on the bed.

I was aware of the fact that we cleaned up and put on some clothes in case someone woke us up early the next day, but the only thing I really remembered was Bella back in my arms.

The next morning, Bella and I walked hand in hand into Carlisle's room for the planning meeting. Even though we hadn't put words to what this was, we both know that last night changed something for us, and there was little doubt of it as we entered the room. But besides a pat on the back from Carlisle, no one said a word.

Bella grabbed her laptop and sat beside me as Jasper began to fill us in on what they'd discovered last night. "The sounds weren't anything distinguishable around the guys. It was louder than what the girls experienced, and it seemed more threatening, but there weren't any words or phrases picked up. Listen to what we picked up from Esme's mic and I will let you draw your own conclusions."

Jaspers started the audio track and I strained to make out anything. I was about to ask him to play it again when Bella gasped.

"Did she say 'run'?"

Jasper played it again and I heard it now that I knew what to listen for. "Holy shit."

"She's trying to send a message. I don't think she liked being forgotten about for all these years and the bully mentality is still present so she's lashing out," Rosalie said.

"There is also our numbers," Alice added. "She was raped by four guys and then we show up with for guys and Bella -"

"What do I have to do with this?" Bella asked.

"We didn't want to upset you with this first thing after you walked in …"Carlisle started, but seemed unable to finish, so Esme did.

"We were able to track down a picture of Hyacinth from one of the former camp directors."

They passed a copy of the old photo to Bella and I leaned over to see it myself.

"Oh my God," she whispered as she passed me the photo that looked a lot like her.

"Maybe you should stay back tonight," I started. "You could do the prelim on our next case."

"I'm not going to let a little resemblance -" Bella tried to argue, but I cut her off.

"And the fact that she tried to use you to reenact her death -"

It was her turn to silence me. "I came here to do a job. If you aren't going to let me help then I'll leave but don't think I'm going to hide every time things get scary."

Getting that tight feeling back in my chest at the mention of her leaving, I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be a jackass and dictate what you can do, but the other night terrified me, Bella."

"I know it did, Edward," she told me as her hand reached up to caress my cheek. "But Alice told me yesterday that she thinks having me there will be the best way to help put her to rest. If she is identifying with me or something, then I may be the best chance we have of helping her."

"If you start to feel weird or anything tonight, use your radio. I don't want you alone if she starts messing with you again."

"Well, now that we're on the topic of tonight," Jasper started, reminding us that we had an audience for our little display, "let's make a plan."

It took a little while, but we had our positions figured out. Alice was adamant that we kept distance between the guys and the girls, so Carlisle was going to be in tech with Jasper. Alice and Esme were going to be out by the lake, with Rosalie in cabin eleven and Bella in cabin seven. Originally, they wanted Bella in cabin eleven, but knowing what happened there, I didn't want her anywhere near that side of the lake. It was the one time I was allowed to put my foot down.

Finally, Em decided to try the dining hall, just to see if there was anything to be picked up there as it was the most frequently used building on the property. That left me in the amphitheater, which I was fine with. I was used to being in the high activity spots. It may have been tame last time, but I had a feeling tonight would be different.

We had lunch together before heading to our rooms to get some rest before tonight. In my head, I kept thinking about how we were the last chance Jess and Mike had. They had campers arriving in a few weeks for the second session, having postponed the start of their camp to allow for the investigators to do their work and then give them time to prepare. If they had to cancel the remainder of the summer, or if the kids had to be sent home at a later time after an incident, it could be enough to permanently close the camp.

There was also the woman in my arms, who had managed to knock down every wall I had built up. She was amazing, and I needed to make her happy. Thankfully, Carlisle didn't want to cut off my nuts for going after his niece, so that was an obstacle I had avoided. He actually seemed to be encouraging it. Thank fuck for that, because I couldn't fight the connection between them.

I eventually drifted off to sleep, only to wake to Bella's sweet kisses along my neck and jaw.

"Bella, what time is it?" I asked as she kissed my Adams apple.

"We have to meet everyone in thirty minutes. I thought maybe we could …" her words trailed off as she hitched her leg over mine.

"Oh, we definitely can," I told her as I pulled her on top of me and searched out her mouth.

Forty-five minutes later, I pulled her out of the room and over to where our cars were parked. It's evident that we're freshly fucked and I noticed Rosalie's scowl as she smacked a wad of cash against my chest.

"You can pick up our dinner from the diner."

"… the fuck?" I said, earning an amused chuckle from the guys.

Bella and I drove to get the food and then met up at camp. Most of the equipment was left in position, so we only had t reconnect it, but that had been finished while we were in route. The dining hall seemed like the logical place to eat and do any last minute strategizing. It was eleven pm when we were ready, so we hooked up our mics and coms, and tested everything before going to our various locations. Rosalie took the longest because she had to walk around to the other side of the lake, but finally we could start this.

"Okay everyone, let's do one last check on video and audio and then we can head into dead time." Jasper called each of us and we answered, shaking our cameras so he knew it wasn't a frozen image and then we went.

Carlisle's voice came into my earpiece, making the customary announcement, "It's 12:04 am, we're officially commencing dead time."

"Hy, we're here to help you find some peace. If you're here, send us a sign of your presence." I looked around the seating of the amphitheater, which was carved into the earth and then reinforced with stone. It was a nice space, but you totally felt surrounded. "Hyacinth, we know that you were hurt here, and we don't want you to be forgotten anymore."

I started to get that eerie feeling, like a thousand eyes were on me right before Rosalie came over the coms. "There is definitely something happening here. I've been getting little brushes and tugs since I asked for a sign."

"Fuck," Emmett's voice almost made me jump as it was unexpected in my ear. "Did one of you bump the thermostat when you left or something, because it's freezing in here. The heat sensors are showing a marked drop."

"Emmett, I don't even know where the controls are in the dining hall to have done something, but we can check for a timer or some malfunction in the morning," I told him as I continued to walk around the space.

I started to feel a pull to one particular section of the arena seating, so I began to climb, my requests for some sign never ending.

"Can you … me?" The jumbled message from Jasper broke a particularly long silence as I answer him.

"You broke up in the middle of that, try again," I asked, but it was Bella's voice I heard.

"Jasper my camera is malfunctioning. I don't know if you're getting any feed, but my display is out." She sounded a little apprehensive and I wished that I were there to ease her nerves. "Shit, my lights are out!"

"All of them, or just the flashlight?" I questioned her.

"Everything, even my backup, and they were all brand new batteries," she explained, just as a muffled screech of some type of feedback filled my ears.

"Be gone," the hushed whisper interrupted the silence around me.

"Hy, if that's you, I need you to communicate with my friends by the lake. I know you may not want to talk to us, but Alice will listen. We don't want to hurt you."

I had barely finished my sentence when I felt something shove me. I'd been walking along one of the rows so it wasn't a misstep to fall sideways down, but as I hit the first stone retaining wall, I knew I wasn't going to stop until I was at the bottom.

My ears were filled with a flurry of voices as what happened was communicated over the coms. I'd lost the camera sometime during my fall and I would have gotten up to look for it, but I was too sore try at the moment.

The pounding of shoes on the ground, the contrast between the sound they made on the grass and the stone alerted me to how fast they were moving. Bella's voice called out to me and soon her hands were tracing over my torso, but the feeling that had drawn me up to where I'd been attacked was still with us.

"Oh God, Edward, are you all right?"

"Bella, she's here," I groaned out, and was surprised when Bella took a protective stance over me.

"Listen to me, Hyacinth. The men who hurt you have been punished for their crimes, but Edward isn't one of them. He's a good man and he wants to help right the wrongs that being neglected caused you. This should be a place where children are safe and with your help we want Jessica and Mike to be able to provide that. The campers aren't safe if you keep attacking people. This isn't your camp, it's Jessica and Mike's. You have to give it back to them."

The coms started to crackle again, and Alice's voice came over. "She's reacting to whatever's happening over there. I think I know how we can end this once and for all."

I didn't move as Bella resumed her check of my body.

"I'm fine, Bella," I tried to reassure her.

"If you think telling me you're okay is going to get you out of a trip to the hospital, you're crazy," she countered as the rest of the team came down the steps, having made their way from their various spots.

"Edward, how are you feeling, that was a nasty fall." Carlisle killed any chance I had of escaping a trip to the ER because he'd seen it and let Bella know he was worried.

I looked around and noticed that Jasper and Alice were still missing. "Where are Jazz and Alice?"

"She went to tech while I came here," Esme explained as Emmett and Bella helped me walk up the stairs.

"Jasper said he was going to wrap up here with Rosalie, but we're taking you to get checked out," Carlisle told me as we walked in the path of the flashlight beams.

More than three hours later, I was sitting on the gurney in the empty ER of the local hospital with Bella by my side. The doctor was looking at my x-rays and scans and he seemed pleased.

"You have some bad bruises and some bruised bones, but luckily no breaks. You'll be sore for a while and I will prescribe something for the pain, but other than that you were very lucky. A fall like that could have been a lot more serious. I will see about getting you out of here."

"Thank you, doctor," Bella said as he went to get my paperwork in order.

It took another twenty-five minutes, but I was finally out of there and Bella was driving me back to the hotel. At some point during my stay, everyone else left after Bella assured them that the doctor was just being cautious with the extra tests.

The hotel was close by and soon Bella was helping me into bed. My clothes were carefully stripped off and I was lying there as Bella folded my shirt.

"Babe, you know that's only going to wind up in the laundry bag, right?"

I didn't know what happened in that instant, but Bella was hysterically crying. "Edward, I'm sorry … I shouldn't be crying like this, it's silly really … but -"

"You were scared tonight, that's allowed. Fuck, I was terrified. But I'm okay. You don't have to worry about it."

"I know, but seeing you lying there, I've never been so scared. If something happened to you -"

I cut her off again, pulling her gently onto the bed. "Nothing is going to happen to me. Bella, I'm not going anywhere. I'm in this until you kick me out."

A smile spread across her face as she leaned in to kiss my forehead. "Then you better get used to me, cause I'm staying."

The team let us sleep late and we were spared the task of removing all of our equipment from the camp before our meeting with the clients. Today we would be discussing what we'd found and giving them our final views on how they could move forward.

With everything packed up except the laptop we were going to be using to show our evidence, I settled in at the table just as Jessica and Mike walked in.

"Edward, we're so glad to hear you're okay," Jess said as they came over to shake my hand.

"This is nothing, believe me. Now, we've got everyone here, we'd like to show you the highlights of what we discovered."

Taking some time to go over everything, I watched as they seemed to be even more worried. They didn't know about everything that had happened on this camp before they bought it, and it didn't sit well with them. This was where we were able to give them the good news.

"I know that might seem overwhelming," Alice started, "but we have some good ideas about how you can move forward. There was a distinct shift in the energy after Bella and I spoke to Hy on the second night. From what we gathered, she was most upset about the fact that her story had been lost and that she was watching bullies continue to hurt other people. Now, we know it's hard to handle it all the time, but I honestly think that if you have some type of a system set up so that bullying isn't tolerated, it will help the situation."

"In addition," I continued, "Hyacinth is a flower, as well as our victims name, so we thought that if you planted some of them and maybe did a little tribute to her, it could be something to show your commitment to stopping the cycle of history repeating."

"We've always handled kids picking on other campers pretty harshly, but maybe if we send paperwork to the parents that inform them that if their child is involved in instances of bullying they can possibly be sent home based on the severity of the incident." Mike looked to Jessica, who seemed to agree with his idea.

"And I think putting some of those bushes right by the front of the office with a little plaque would be a nice tribute," Jessica added. "I would love for her to be a positive influence on the camp and feel like she wasn't lost in time."

"Those are both great ideas and I think they will go a long way to easing the negative occurrences you've had here." We stood up to say our goodbyes, and Jessica made a bee-line for me as she gave me a light hug.

"Thank you, Edward. You've helped us when we thought that everything was lost."

"You're welcome, Jessica. If you have any other disturbances, please give us a call. We do follow ups from time to time and we'd be happy to help if it is needed."

About fifteen minutes later we were loading up the cars and I noticed Alice and Bella whispering. Alice caught my eye and winked, before climbing into the SUV.

"Do I want to know what that was?" I asked Bella as she got into the car.

"No, but the cat's out of the bag about Chicago, Alice seems excited about it."

I took her hand and held it over the console as I began to drive down the dirt road, "As long as you're with me, I've got no worries."


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: ****Things That Go Bump in the Night – The Masen House  
**  
**Summary**: Second-shot from the "Things that Go Bump in the Night" story. Edward has searched out the supernatural for years, hoping to bring peace to his clients with the help of the Twilight Paranormal Group, but that drive was born out of his own experiences. Returning to Chicago and the scene of his own haunting, the team works to solve the mystery of the Masen house.  
**AN: **This is a second shot from this story, requested by several readers after it was hinted at in the original. This was originally donated to the Fandom for Suicide Awareness charity, but now here it is as the final piece of this story. I hope you enjoy the spookiness, my beta mizzdee said this gave her chills. This story is Rated M for lemons, language, and subject matter that may bother some people. Both supernatural scenarios the past events (reference to kidnapping and child abuse death, though not detailed.) Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**EPOV**

"When are you going to talk to me about the house?" Bella asked from our bed in the W Chicago Lakeshore Hotel.

We'd checked in a day early, the team coming back from a few days off tomorrow so we could begin prep. I'd asked them not to research it until we were all together, because I wanted to be a part of every aspect of this investigation.

Even though Alice kept telling me that we were going to do the investigation, I fought it the entire time we were in Ohio doing our next investigation. It was Bella's worries about me that caused me to finally give in, as she spent half of a night talking in her sleep about me being safe.

I couldn't let my demons haunt her too. It was the reason I'd shied away from relationships for as long as I did, and now that I had Bella, I had to come to terms with what happened there.

"Can we please just wait until the team is here? I don't want to go through it twice," I asked, hoping she'd let it go for one more night.

"Yeah," she whispered. "I don't mean to push, but it seemed like every mile closer we got to Chicago was another weight that was added to you. I feel like I should call Alice and tell her to back off. You don't have to face this if you aren't ready to, you know that."

Shit, now she was starting to feel bad about wanting to help me move past this.

"Bella, come here." I held out a hand for her to take, and soon I had her pulled close to my chest. "I need this to be able to move on, but that doesn't mean it will be easy. It isn't just the haunting, but it was my parents' dismissal of my experiences. Not having the support of my family made everything so much worse and I want nothing more than to sell the house, but I can't do it knowing what I lived through there. That needs to be handled or controlled before I could do it."

"So we'll go through it together, but for tonight we can relax. What do you want to do?"

I felt the smirk creep across my face as she lay there innocently. "I'd really like for you to open the shutters that obscure my view of you in the shower, because that's a view I want to see."

"Why not join me?" she teased. "That way you can touch, feel, and taste me too?"

"I love how you think, Bella," I moaned, thoughts of my house forgotten.

*BUMP*

I woke up with a start the next morning, waking Bella right along with me.

"What's wrong?" Bella questioned as she sat up beside me.

"It was just the dream I had…I was back in the house with the moaning and the pressure. You'll understand more when we do the walkthrough and I can tell you about the occurrences, but those feelings just eat at me."

Bella stood up, pulling me by the arm. "Come on, Edward, we'll get dressed and then go down to meet everyone for breakfast. Then we can get started."

I followed her over to the dressers so that we could get ready for the day, anxious all over again for what was coming in the next few hours.

We rode the elevator down to Wave, the hotel's restaurant, where everyone was waiting for us. Bella's hand squeezed mine as we sat down, joining the gang at the table. We made small talk and ordered our food, dancing around the reason we were in Chicago, the reason Alice was having a spa day so that she would be able to come in fresh tomorrow and see what she could using her gift.

When my omelet was no longer holding my interest and my appetite was long gone, I finally dove into my story.

"I always felt sick as a child. My mom would bring me to the doctor and nothing would be wrong. My father said I was trying to get out of school and forced my mother to bring me, but I couldn't shake it. The basement would scare the shit out of me and I'd experience a tightness or pressure in my chest right before I fell asleep, which meant that it took a lot longer to fall asleep. And the sounds…moaning and footsteps downstairs. They never believed me. So I stopped telling them, and then as soon as I was able to, I went to school and never turned back. I went home twice between when I started school and when they died, and I don't regret it."

Jasper reached over to pluck the check off the table and slip his credit card in before I could fight him. "We have the equipment ready to set up right after the walkthrough if you'd like to do that. You guys can canvas the neighborhood for a while in the afternoon while we prepare for dead time."

"That sounds like a plan," Carlisle said as he turned to me for approval.

"Sure, let's do it," I told them, already dreading it. That house was not a place I wanted to spend any more time than necessary.

Bella and I drove separately from the others, her hand once again in mine as the team followed me to the house. The quiet street opened up to the old brick house not too far from the water. It should have been peaceful, but that was killed by the memories that I had of living there.

Bella's voice cut through my thoughts, her hand running up and down my arm. "Edward, breathe. Any point, if you want to back off, we will. You are the client here, you're running this."

Nodding, we got out and met the team on the porch. I unlocked the door and began the tour. "I'm starting with the room that I can't be in and then moving to the more active rooms.

"The basement is this way." I walked to the door and pointed. "It isn't a fun playroom kind of hangout, its storage and a furnace and laundry area, which I've never used. I'm saying this from the top of the stairs because I refuse to go in there. I hate that I'm forcing any of you down there, but I can't show you around."

"So you haven't had any episodes in the basement?" Rosalie asked.

"I can only make it to the fourth step before I panic. The moaning I hear in my room sounds distant, so I don't know if the basement is the origin and that's why it bothers me so much, but you couldn't pay me to go down there when I was young."

"Okay, we can make a quick trip down there," Esme said, leaving Carlisle to babysit me.

True to their word, three minutes later they were back up the stairs and we were moving up to the second floor.

"The rest of the incidents were up here. My bedroom was the worst, but there was varying degrees of the same experiences in all the rooms on this floor, so let's just go to my bedroom and we can discuss it there."

"Please describe the exact feelings you experienced during the episodes." Bella had her notebook poised in her hand as she asked the question.

"The sickness in the morning was like a bad cold. I'd feel feverish, but I never had a fever, I'd cough, and I felt sluggish. At night, the first thing would be the tightness in my chest. It was my lungs more than my heart, but the pressure would build."

"And the moaning and the footsteps, you heard it in bed as well?" Bella asked sadly.

"Yeah, I'd hear it in the upstairs rooms at night and when I tried to go into the basement I'd hear it behind me. Other parts of the house don't seem to be as effected as those two floors." With the final explanation, we headed back outside and split up.

Jasper and Rosalie stayed behind to set up tech while Bella and I took one side of the block and Carlisle, Esme, and Emmett took the other. We started knocking on doors, many people reluctant to talk to us, even after I explained that I lived in the house in question and was trying to learn a little history on it. We were halfway down the block when we got our first positive response.

"Yeah, I remember that place," the man in his late fifties told us. "When we were kids my parents used to always tell us to stay away from it. Never knew why they didn't want us playing there, but it wasn't the people living there because they didn't change their opinion of it after it was sold. That house hasn't been owned for more than a decade since the forties. I really don't have more information than that. The people who owned the house over the years were all nice enough; I can give you their names if you'd like to see if you can contact them. Sometimes you just get a feeling, one you don't question."

"I understand that, and thank you for the names," I said as he wrote down the three names that could help shed some light on this mystery.

Moving down the street, we got more of the same, vague memories and bad feelings, until Bella's phone rang, Esme telling us to come meet them at the opposite side of the block. When we got there, there was a younger woman sitting on her porch with a woman I assumed was at least her grandmother. Both women were Hispanic and the elderly woman was speaking very fast, her tone was alarmed.

Esme pulled me aside to whisper to me. "Antonia and her great-grandmother, Bia, seem to have a lot of information. She's lived here since the twenties and her parents owned it since nearly the turn of the century."

"This is the man who owns the house now?" Antonia asked.

"Yes, I'm Edward Masen; my family has owned the house for thirty years now."

"Os céticos, eu me lembro deles," Bia said. The words were spoken slowly and with a little anger to them, but I still had no idea what she'd said.

"She said that she remembers your parents, they were skeptics." Antonia chuckled. "My great-grandmother is very traditional and very Catholic. She believes your house is haunted, and she thinks you do as well."

"I do," I admitted. "Did my friends tell you what we do?"

"They did explain it, but Bia wants to explain something to you." Antonia turned to her great-grandmother and urged her to continue. The two of them talked for a few minutes before Bia started to repeat the same phrase over and over.

"What is she saying?" Bella asked.

"Um diabo vivia ali," Antonia repeated. "A devil lived there. The owners that bought the house in 1920 bought it from the bank. She's too young to know what happened to the previous owner, but her mother and sisters always told her to be careful at that house, because what happened there still lingered."

"Does she know how long before 1920 it was?" Emmett asked.

Antonia relayed the question to Bia before she shook her head. "She was a small child, but I would look into the years before and see how the house came to be the banks property in the first place. The owners that sold it in the early sixties were looking into it as well, so they would be good people to contact about what could have happened there."

"Thank you so much for the help, and anything I find out as far as making the house less hostile I will gladly pass on," I told them earning a smile from Antonia.

"She'll like to know that the house has closure, so thank you for that." Antonia led her great-grandmother back inside, leaving us to return to the house and check on their progress.

"How's it going in here," I asked Rosalie as she checked the monitors.

"The basement is all set. Jasper's got the motion sensors in the hall and the cameras set up on the entire second floor, now he's just setting up the microphones up there. We should be ready to go in an hour if you guys want to head back and get something to eat and nap now."

"Okay, what time are we meeting back here?" I asked.

"Edward, you're the client, we need to be impartial the first night, but we'll fill you in on everything tomorrow," Carlisle spoke and I didn't respond.

I knew it was likely that they wouldn't let me participate, especially in the first dead time, but it didn't make staying behind any easier to deal with.

Everyone piled into my SUV and we drove to the W, each going our separate ways once we got in the elevator. I took Bella into our room and we immediately ordered room service. With her safely seated beside me on the couch, I held her close.

"Please be careful tonight, I don't like that you're going in there alone."

"Edward, the camp was a fluke. Nothing has happened on our last two jobs, and besides, I won't be alone. Rose and I are both going to be in the basement." Bella tried to appease me, but I wouldn't be happy until she was back early tomorrow morning.

"Wake me up when you get back, because I'll sleep better knowing you're safe," I told her.

"If it means you'll relax; then I will," she told me, kissing me on the cheek before going to change for bed.

I did the same and then we relaxed until room service came. We ate dinner together, though towards the end I only picked at it, knowing what was coming soon. Bella wordlessly led me to the bed and we curled up together, quickly drifting off to sleep.

I was sound asleep when smalls hand shook me awake. I looked up into Bella's tearful eyes and I was suddenly wide awake.

"Bella? What happened?" I asked, begging her to answer me.

"I'm sorry, nothing major happened…I mean, we had activity, but we're all fine- " Her rambling wasn't getting either of us anywhere, so I interrupted her to get the answer to the most important question floating around in my head.

"Bella, if you're all fine, then why are you so upset?"

"Because," she wailed. "I spent two hours there and it was too much. I can't imagine growing up in that house. That oppressive energy, and you can feel the presence in the basement. The creaking we heard that even Jasper picked up on from tech…you lived that. Edward, if your parents were still alive I'd beat the shit of them for not only being too dense to feel it, but to not believe you when you were struggling. I'm just so glad you got out of there and were able to find people to support you."

"We'll figure out what is causing this and take back the house, even if it's only so I can sell it and be rid of it once and for all," I told her.

"I promise, Edward. Carlisle has never been this intent on solving a problem and you have the whole team behind you. Now, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day."

Bella settled into my arms and we were once again drifting off to sleep.

*BUMP*

Bella was curled up on the couch when I woke up at nine-thirty, her laptop resting on the arm as she typed away.

"You're up early?" I said as I got up and flipped through the room service menu.

"I'm motivated, and I've found some information already," Bella said as she gestured to the door. "I ordered the same breakfast as we got the first day, since I knew you liked it. It should be here any minute."

"You don't want to get pulled away from your work?" I questioned.

"We're going to be doing heavy research starting at eleven, and I wanted to be prepared. We have to learn what happened in that house. I've already found the information on the last three owners before your parents. The two previous sets of owners are deceased, so I'm ready to make some phone calls a little later. Now I'm trying to find information on what happened there before 1920, but its slow going. The only really notable thing is the Spanish Influenza outbreak in 1918, which could be part of it. I mean, it's a sick feeling, and if the entire family died and there were no one for the house to go to, then it would eventually become the property of whoever owned the mortgage. But that doesn't seem like enough. Everyone believes there was something malicious there, even if it didn't present itself like other spirits have."

"I agree, but that time frame is accurate. Maybe when we get to the library we can find something." The knock at the door put a hold on our conversation, at least for the moment.

After breakfast, Alice called, asking me to meet her so we could do the walkthrough. This was one of the things I'd been dreading most about this case, but with a kiss from Bella, I was on my way.

Alice was waiting in the lobby when I got out of the elevator, so we went to the valet to get the car. "Everything will be all right, Edward."

"Is this a vision, or a platitude?" I teased.

"A little of both, now let's go see your house." The valet opened her door, allowing her to slip in while I walked around to the driver's side. We didn't talk on the ride over, but as soon as I put the key in the lock, she stopped me.

"This wasn't just the flu," she whispered.

I didn't respond as she walked into the house. The main entryway was where she started, going through the hall and back to the kitchen. "There's something smoky and a little putrid smelling here, it's very faint, but…

"He paced a lot, thinking about who he'd choose before going into the room. He thought he was saving them and this was their payment. And he was a master at hiding his actions." Alice looked at me and took my hand. "Let's go into the basement."

I followed her, and she immediately started telling me about the way the room had been, the beds that had lined the front and back walls of the house. Eight beds, though there were never that many kept down here. Her speech was jumbled, it came too fast and I tried to process what she was saying. Then her eyes focused on the area to the left of the stairs.

"This is where they were taken after he killed them, the girls saw it all…they knew there was no hope, but he spared the boys that pain. They were kept upstairs."

She started walking upstairs and I followed her, ready to leave the room. Once we made it to the second floor, she started pointing to the rooms. "These were the rooms he kept the boys in. The one that was his undoing had been kept in your room."

"I didn't tell you which one was my room," I said and she smiled.

"Your fear lingers there too, Edward, it's left its imprint on this house." Alice's words weighed on me as she moved to the master bedroom. "This was where he slept, where he was killed. It's amazing that your parents didn't experience anything."

"If they did, they didn't say a word to me," I told her as we turned to head back downstairs.

"We better call them and tell them to meet us at the library. Bella will need to use her librarian skills to get us the rest of the information we need."

I escorted her out and was just about to lock the door when my phone rang. I saw Bella's face smiling up at me, so I answered quickly. "We just finished up here, Bella. Alice wants you all to meet us at the library because she said you'll need it."

"We're already there, Edward. One of the former owners had a great deal of information for us and I'm following up on it. I'm in the periodicals room. I'll see you both soon."

"Okay, love, see you there," I responded as I hung up. "They're already there, she got a tip from one of the former owners and now she's researching it."

The drive to the library took almost a half an hour in the Chicago traffic, but finally we were walking into the periodicals room where Carlisle and Esme were both on their laptops. "Where's everyone else?"

Carlisle looked up from his screen to answer us. "Jasper and Rosalie are at the hotel going over the audio and video from last night to see if anything was captured and Bella's over there at the microfilm machine searching for something."

"She said that one of the home owners knew something?" I asked and Esme was the one to answer this time.

"Out of the three she was able to contact, one knew nothing, but did admit to some of the things you experience, one hung up as soon as she mentioned the address, and the last one told her she'd done some research before selling the house, but that she stopped looking into it soon after she found what she believed to be the cause. She confirmed to Bella that she was headed in the right direction when it came to the Spanish Influenza outbreak, so Bella searched the microform database for any articles from 1918 and 1919 that mention your address. We're searching for your address in the police reports database to see if we can get a case number if the police were involved."

"I'm going to check with her; hopefully we can find the answers." I moved to the back of the room where Bella was sitting at an old looking computer, turning knobs and peering into the old viewfinder. "You should wear your glasses more often."

"You just say that because you have a naughty librarian fantasy," Bella teased as she moved aside slightly so I could pull a chair alongside her.

"It's such good luck that my girlfriend went to school for library sciences," I teased, just as she let a curse slip from her lips. "What is it, Bella?"

"It's worse than we imagined. Let me print this one and keep looking, that way we can read them once their printed."

She sat there for another twenty minutes, muttering as she printed several articles before she retrieved the stack and signed off the machine. The two of us walked back to the table where Alice, Esme, and Carlisle were sitting as she put the printed articles on the table top, sliding in beside Alice.

"Look for Lonnie Brooks, date of arrest December 19, 1918. His police file will be the one we need."

She passed us all different articles to read while Esme looked for his record, and what we found was shocking.

Lonnie Brooks worked at the crematorium for the city morgue. He would pick up bodies from the hospital and take them to be burned. During the fall of 1918, he started kidnapping children whose parents had been killed by the disease, and bringing them back to his house…my house. The boys were bound and kept in beds in the upper bedrooms, while the girls were bound to cots in the basement. They could see that there was room for more if he found them, and they saw the bodies after he smothered them with their pillows.

They were gagged so they couldn't scream, but when Brooks missed work for three days because the illness made him weaker as he tried to restrain them, his boss sent the police to check in on him. They heard the noise coming from upstairs and broke down the door, finding a young boy in one of the upper bedrooms. Brooks opened the door of his room only to see the cops and reached for his knife. They shot him dead in the doorway, and upon further inspection of the house they found a girl alive in the basement, as well as the body of another boy , that he would have taken with him to work when he went next.

The papers said that the children were always separated like that, and the three that survived admitted that he kept the girls below and the boys above, and that there had been more before them. The exact number of his victims was never known.

"I hope he's burning in hell," Bella whispered as we finished reading the articles, the horrors that had occurred in my house were now laid out plainly before us.

"I think we should head back to the hotel and find out what they have from last night's dead time. We can link that to what we discovered and make our plan for tomorrow night," Carlisle said.

"Tomorrow night?" I asked, wondering why we were delaying this.

"I think we need more planning time, it seems that we're dealing with the feelings trapped within the house, not the spirit of Lonnie Brooks, but it is still a lot to take in. I say that we go over what we discovered last night, and see if there is anything else we can learn about the victims. Alice, if you could find something that will help release the house of those feelings, I think that will be the biggest thing we can do moving forward."

"That's fair," I agreed before turning to Bella. "Do you have everything you need from here, or will you need more time with the microfilms?"

"No, after the articles on the victims were published, there doesn't seem to be much else on it, so I would have to go by police records, which I can do from the hotel as easily as here. We can head back."

Collecting our things, we drove back to the W and headed to Jasper and Alice's room where he already had the laptops set up to show us what he and Rosalie had discovered.

"There wasn't as much on the tapes as we would have hoped. We watched them and dissected the footage, along with the audio collected and it made the experiences subjective, not objective."

"What do you mean?" I asked, a little annoyed that he couldn't find proof.

"There wasn't any actual movement, we all felt things, and heard things, and not all of it was supernatural. The tightness that we experienced and the issues we felt, those were real, and the moaning was unexplainable…but the footsteps were the house." Rosalie watched me as she made the final statement.

"And you can prove that?" Bella asked, sensing that I wasn't taking it well.

"Yes we can," she responded. "When we amplified the sound of the creaking, we heard the softer tones that showed it was one long noise of the house settling in the chill of the night, as old houses do, but it wasn't separate sounds like you would hear with footsteps. We even went back and took recordings of actual footsteps in the house and compared them. Even walking slowly and stepping in different ways, it couldn't be recreated. But comparing it to the sound of a house at night that we had on file, it was the closest match."

"Where is Emmett? Did he go with you to the house to perform the test?" Alice inquired as there was a thump low on the door.

"He went to pick up pizza from down the street," Jasper said as he let Emmett in.

"How'd they take the news?" Emmett asked.

"I'm dealing, but we're not going in again tonight, so hopefully whatever we find tomorrow night will be enough."

"Edward, there is something there, no one is questioning that," Alice insisted. "I'm going to look for the right cleansing ritual to help free what is trapped in the house."

"I'm sorry," I told them, "I don't mean to be a little bitch about this, but its part of the reason I was resisting having you do the investigation on my house, knowing what happened there, it makes it a lot more difficult to deal with my own experiences."

"What did your research uncover?" Jasper asked, reminding us that we had a long story to tell them.

"A man named Lonnie Brooks owned the house, he worked for the morgue in1918 when the Spanish Influenza outbreak hit," Bella started the story, holding my hand tightly as she continued. "As he would load up the bodies to bring them to be cremated, he noticed children that were left behind by dead and dying parents.

"He managed to convince them using his authority as someone working within the hospital that he was bringing them to a house that was offering temporary housing until they could be helped back on their feet. Once they got there, they were chained to the beds, the boys in the upstairs and the girls on cots in the basement. There's no evidence that he sexually assaulted them from the articles, not that I'd expect it to be printed back then, but he would spend time with them before returning to his room for the night.

"When one of the kids would become too weak, he'd smother them with a pillow, bring them into the basement and then bring them along on his rounds collecting the dead the following day, destroying the evidence along with the body. There is no idea how many victims he had, but when he missed work for three days, his boss became worried and sent the police to check on him. They arrived and heard the noise coming from upstairs and assumed it was Brooks having difficulty. They broke in and found the teen boy that was being held in Edward's room. Lonnie confronted the police and was killed before a search of the house revealed a young girl in the basement and the body of another boy. All the information they had was based on what these children had learned, mainly the girl because she witnessed a lot more in the basement."

"Jesus, talk about a grim reaper," Emmett shook his head; as if it would erase the story we had just been told.

"Why don't we eat dinner and then we can show you the footage we got," Rosalie offered and we all agreed.

Dinner was a little tense, but after viewing the reactions that my team had, questioning each other about sounds they heard, or the low moan that we had ruled out as being electrical produced by anything normal we decided that there wasn't more we could do with the footage tonight.

We parted for the night, and Bella took me back to our room, telling me to take a hot shower to relax. The spray did wonders to loosen my muscles as I tried to forget for the rest of the night. I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist, entering the bedroom only to hear Bella's voice coming from the short hallway behind me, right by the door to the room.

"You just have to keep breaking the rules, don't you?" she said.

"What are you…" my words died as I saw her standing in front of me in a skirt and a frilly button up blouse, a pair of high heels on her feet and a pencil holding her hair in a messy bun and her glasses sitting on her perfect nose. "Fuck, Bella."

"That's Miss Swan to you, Mr. Masen." She crossed the space between us, an extra bit of sway in her hips as she moved. "No matter what I tell you to do, you always do the opposite. I tell you that you have to be quiet and you yell, I tell you about the proper treatment of the library's property and you misuse everything you touch. You can't even follow the dress code we require. I don't know what I should do with you."

"Maybe you should punish me?" I offered, hoping to god she would.

"Then who would punish me? Because as hard as it is for me to try to get you to follow the rules, it is even harder to not break the rules along with you, you make it look so satisfying," she purred.

"It feels so good, Miss Swan. Break the rules with me, I promise to make it feel good," I whispered.

Bella took off her glasses, letting the temple of her glasses trace down her neck and collarbone before it rested between her breasts. "I'm sure you will."

"I have rules too, Miss Swan, and these can't be broken," I said in preparation. "Number one, the heels and glasses stay on, and number two, we're going to be disrespecting several surfaces in this room and I want to hear you scream as we do. If we're doing this, we're breaking every one of the rules that you cling to while you're working."

Her glasses slipped back up to her face as she reached forward to yank at my towel, dropping it to the floor. "Deal."

I practically lunged forward, finding the zipper of her skirt and pushing it down her legs, my cock instantly coming into contact with her naked flesh. "Look at you, naughty girl, not wearing any underwear."

"I was planning on having to yell at you today, you never let me down," she moaned as the fingers that had been unbuttoning her shirt purposely glided over her chest as I pushed it off her shoulders and onto the floor.

With only her bra between us, I quickly got rid of it and then lifted her, pressing her against the wall and then reaching between us to line myself up to her core before I pushed into her.

The moan that echoed off the wall behind her put a cocky smile on my face as I pulled out and slammed back in. "This isn't going to be gentle, Baby."

I slammed into her repeatedly, listening to the sounds Bella made and using them as a guide. Her heels dug into my ass, as her whispered pleas for more kept me going. Lifting her again, I walked over to the table by the window and laid her down, her feet instantly finding the edge of the desk, but her heels slipped off the surface.

"I think it's time we get rid of these, because I want you pushing back, and you need to be louder," I growled as I slipped her heels off and leaned over her.

"Oh god, Edward, that feels amazing. Make me scream," she moaned and I used the change in the angle to drive her to the peak.

The noise in the room grew louder as I felt Bella tighten around me, letting me know that we were quickly approaching her climax. Doubling my efforts, I watched in pure joy as Bella arched off the table, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she screamed my name. The feeling of her gripping me from within sent me over the edge; Bella's name joined her cries as I came hard inside her.

Knowing the table wasn't very comfortable for her, I waited until my strength returned and carried Bella into the bathroom so we could both shower quickly before falling into bed.

"Thank you, Bella. You have no idea how much I needed that."

"I had some idea, and anytime you need me, I'm here for you, Edward."

And with those sweet words we drifted off to sleep.

*BUMP*

We slept in again the next morning, but when we did wake up, Alice was quick to claim me for a shopping trip, barely letting me finish breakfast before we left.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked as we rode the elevator down.

"I figured you'd be the best person to help me find these little stores around here, so I kidnapped you. I found the perfect ritual to try and release all of the energy and any spirits that may be lingering. But I need supplies and I think it will help you to be a part of the whole experience," Alice explained as we exited the elevator and made our way to the valet once more.

"Thank you, Alice. I know I was a dick yesterday-"

"You were a client and the boss at the same time, and you can't be both of those things. Let Carlisle run the show as he has been and everything will work out a lot better. Now, onto the shopping." Alice giggled as she climbed into the waiting car.

It took us a few hours, buying candles, incense, smudges in three different varieties for the ritual. I knew the importance of a sage smudge, or a bundle of sage wrapped tightly and burned during a ritual, but the cedar and sweetgrass were lost on me. As we returned to the hotel, we met up with the group, but Carlisle told us he was still working on which rooms we'd be in tonight, so I was left alone to try and prepare for tonight with Bella.

Knowing me as she now does, Bella ordered us a late lunch and then we hung out, watching TV before taking a nap. It was still so amazing to me that we'd been together only six weeks, but we were already so attuned to one another. This house and the things I experienced there made me the man that founded this group and brought us together, but they also made me the man that almost pushed her away. With a strengthened resolve, I fell asleep ready to put an end to this.

The alarm went off at ten, and Bella ordered our dinner while I got dressed, giving her a chance to get herself ready before we sat down to our room service. The meal was quiet before I finally asked her about the research she did this afternoon.

"There wasn't much more. The two kids still alive when everything was discovered were able to give an idea of how many children he'd had while they were being held, but a true number was never known. Angela, the young girl who was in the basement gave them a majority of the information they had to go on, and the only other mention of them I could find was through genealogy. Ben Cheney, the boy who had been in your room asked Angela to marry him about a year and a half after they were released from the hospital and lived a happy life. It seems they were bonded by what they lived through and found that having their partner understand it made things easier to handle."

"I'm glad they got a happy ending, I just hope we can solve this so that I can sell this house with a clear conscience," I told her, at which she reached over to take my hand.

"You will, I promise." her eyes burned with such intensity that I didn't want to question her, so I let it go for the moment.

All too soon, we had to head down to the suite that Carlisle and Esme were staying in so we could talk ourselves through the plan for the night.

"Okay," Carlisle said as he closed the door behind us. "Now that we're all here, let's go over our room assignments so we can head out and do our tech setups and get dead time underway."

Esme looked down at the pad in front of her, giving out our assignments. "Rose and Jasper are going to have tech set up in the dining room again, Alice will be in the living room, trying to get contact from anything, Emmett will be back in Edward's room, I'll be in the master bedroom, Carlisle will be in the room that Edward Sr. turned into his office, and Bella and Edward will be in the basement."

"You're making him face the basement during dead time?" Bella yelled. "He isn't ready to go in there during the daytime and you're sticking him down here when we're actively trying to provoke whatever is lingering in that house?"

"Bella," I whispered before Carlisle could try to explain, "I need this."

Her shocked face spun to look me in the eyes as she tried to argue, "There is no need to force it."

"I'm not forcing it. I'm setting myself free," I explained. "I'm okay, and if I get to the point where I'm not, I'll switch with one of the others."

"Good," Carlisle said, happy that I wasn't fighting it. "Let's get over to the house and prepare for our final dead time."

We got to my house faster than I would have liked, and the mics were attached and the cameras and lights were tested before the majority of the group headed upstairs. Jasper and Rose settled in the dining room and Bella and I walked downstairs, Alice paced above us so we'd know what it sounded like if she started to roam around.

We had our flashlights on and Bella and I were sitting with our backs against the front wall, looking towards the back of the house. It gave us the best vantage point of the stairs and the cellar door that led to the outside.

The overhead light was still on, but I knew that in a few minutes Rosalie would turn it off and we'd be plunged into near darkness, only the flashlights and the night-vision camera setting giving us the ability to see.

We heard the last bit of movement before Rosalie radioed that the light would go out. With the loss of that light source, Carlisle called for the start of dead time.

"We know that this is the room where all of the girls were held, are any of you with us tonight?" Bella spoke clearly out into the room, engaging whatever might still be here. "None of us want to hurt you. The only thing we want is for you to move on. You've spent nearly a century trapped in this house and it is time that you rest."

Finding my voice, I spoke out. "I know what it's like, to try and get help and have no one notice what's happening…that's what growing up in this house was like for me. I could feel you, hear you, I sensed your presence but my parents were skeptical about it and thought I wanted attention. I walked away from them, but I also walked away from you, and I'm sorry for that. But you need to let go."

A low humming moan caught my attention as I began to feel the pressure. Whether it was the pressure that the flu caused with the fluid buildup, or the suffocation they experienced when he'd kill them, I wasn't sure, but the panic bubbled to the surface.

"Edward, breathe." Bella's voice was right in my ear as she whispered to me. "I know you're scared, but we're going to get through this." I heard her voice change as she held me close. "Do you see him? He feels your pain, we all feel it, which is why you need to let it go. You can find peace now, we know what happened here and you aren't trapped anymore. We set you free."

The crackle of the radios were jumbling the other's voices, they seemed to be making similar pleas. The tightness grew worse before it receded. The heavy pounding of footsteps and the blinding overhead light let us know that they'd ended dead time and we were almost ready to close this case.

"I think I know how to make this ritual work," Alice said as she knelt in front of me. "That was a long and intense session, but it was worth it."

"Long?" I asked, because it felt like it had been cut short.

"We were down her for almost two hours, Edward," Bella told me and I shivered.

"Can we get out of here?" I asked and Bella helped me up, leading me up the stairs and out to the car.

"How are you feeling, Edward?" Carlisle asked as he came over to give me a one-armed hug.

"Tired, but a little bit better actually."

"Good. Tomorrow, we'll be able to work toward your resolution." His words held hope, so I clung to them as we drove to the hotel.

*BUMP*

"Edward, come on, we have to get up. Jasper and them have finished tearing down tech and after brunch we're meeting them for the ritual." Bella's shaking finally jarred me enough that I opened my eyes.

"You let me sleep in?" I asked.

"You needed it, now we have a plan for today and tonight."

"Tonight?" I questioned, because the cleansing was supposed to be the end of it.

"Yes, if everything goes well today, then you and I will spend the night in your old room to see if you can spend the night without experiencing an episode. If you can, then you can sell it with a clear conscience," Bella explained.

"Okay," I agreed. "Let's get this started."

After showers, breakfast and some heavy petting, we drove to meet everyone at my house. Letting ourselves in, we discovered them in the master bedroom. Alice clasped her hands tightly, smiling reassuringly at me as she spoke. "Perfect timing, now we can begin. For the first part, I will go alone using the three smudges to cleanse the house passively, allowing the herbs the chance to start what we will finish as we go from room to room."

Alice took the sage smudge and began her circuit of the house, speaking the blessing as she went through the house. She returned twice, switching out the sage smudge for the cedar, and then cedar for sweetgrass, before returning to begin the second phase.

"The water in this bowl is signifies water in all of its forms." Lifting a spoon, she slowly poured the tiny white crystals into the water. "Salt is of the earth, but the two work side by side on this planet to bring life. The smudges represent the air we breathe and the things it carries, and this candle is fire, the life force of so many things."

Alice lit the candle and handed it to me, passing something to each of the girls before giving Carlisle the bowl with the salt water as she started to walk forward, each couple following behind her in pairs with Bella and I in the rear.

"Spirits that remain here, you are set free. Darkness that lingers, come into the light. All that is negative shall leave this day and allow for better things to come. We release you, we command you, be gone."

Alice repeated this chant in every room, Carlisle sprinkling the water on the floor as we walked through each room, Alice lingering in my room longer than the others on the floor. We continued downstairs and made the rounds before coming to stop at the basement. Centering ourselves, we descended into the room that held the most anger and activity, allowing Alice to work her spell until we had done a lap of the room. She turned to the cellar door and told Jasper to open it, all of us walking out into the sunlight as we stood in the side yard at the end of the driveway.

"We release you, we command you, be gone." Alice took the bowl from Carlisle and dumped the remaining water in a young plant sitting in a planter before she snuffed the candle and took it from me. "Edward, each of us girls had a pair of medals on a short chain, one is an Archangel Gabriel medal, and the other is Saint Michael. I thought you'd appreciate the sentiment. There are four holes in the corners of your property that we dug so that we could bury the medals to help protect the house and the property. Is that all right?"

"That's perfect, Alice, thank you."

The four couples split up and as Bella and I got to the front left corner of the property, she dropped the medal in the hole and I picked up the shovel, filling the hole back in and tamping it down. When the work was done, Bella looked up at me with a hopeful smile. "How do you feel?"

"Relieved," I admitted. "I really think this made a difference."

*BUMP*

Later that night, we drove up to the house and parked the car in the driveway, entering through the front door and for once not feeling anything strange. We'd eaten with everyone, relaxing until it was time to come here and hopefully get some sleep, but I wasn't going to hold my breath.

The one saving grace was that as a tall teenager, my parents got me a full bed because the twin wasn't cutting it, so it gave Bella and I room to cuddle together. We used the bathroom and then made the bed, climbing and talking about everything and nothing, just hoping to pass the time. It was a little after midnight when we fell asleep, all without any disturbance, and as my eyes opened the following morning, I smiled triumphantly.

"Are you okay?" Bella asked as she stretched beside me.

"I'm more than okay, that's the first time I've ever slept through the night without waking up," I told her.

"That's amazing, baby, I'm so happy for you."

"It did bring something very important to mind, though." I left the thought vague as she stared at me a little perplexed.

"What is it?"

"Most guys think about this a lot as teens and twenties, but the thought didn't enter my head until late last night. But now that it seems that the house is finally free of whatever had a hold on it, I think it's time I make up for lost time."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, a little annoyed at my vagueness, I assumed.

"Every guy dreams of having their girlfriend in their childhood bed, and the only thing I need to make it happen is a few misplaced garments."

Bella giggled as I pounced on her, my lips finding her neck as my hands worked to remove her shorts and underwear. "You're impossible."

"That's what you love about me," I teased as her fingers moved to remove a few of my offending articles of clothing.

"It's one of the many things, actually."

Joking with Bella in my bedroom thinking about normal things for once, I was relieved that I had finally been able to put this behind me and could move on with the woman I loved.


End file.
